Harpsichord

Description

The realsamples 'Harpsichord' library contains a harpsichord built in 1988, a reproduction of Ruckers harpsichord from around 1640.The harpsichord, predecessor of the piano, still has its special place not only within classical music, but also in modern productions.

While it is not a dynamic instrument at all, every hit sounds slightly different due to acoustic resonances of the body. If you sampled only one hit of each key, you would notice a static nature, especially within fast pieces.

The sampled harpsichord, a master reproduction from a Ruckers instrument around 1640, was built by Michael Walker in 1988. It has been recorded with 8 velocity layers of each key, so most of the time, different samples will be played. The release sounds were sampled with 4 velocity layers.

The lute stop register of the of the instrument is included as well.

For a lively recording, Realsamples used Royer™ SF-12® and R-122® ribbon microphons through Mindprint™ DTC® preamps. To start from scratch, presets for Halion®/EXS24®/Kontakt2® and GigaStudio® are available.

Recorded in stereo in 96 kHz/24 bits, the library was downsampled to 44.1 KHz/24 bits (GigaStudio®: 16 bits).